The dark side of Christmas

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

The dark side of Christmas Nicola butler The rain was intense and I was not looking forward to stepping out of my car into the graveyard this Christmas. Knew from the very second it would be "the dark side of Christmas". As expected when plunged out I stepped into an extremely wet puddle and was drowned with rain. I started walking solemnly to the graveyard where both my granddads lay, still, peaceful and lifeless in the grave where they were buried just 4 weeks ago. As I headed closer and closer towards the entrance gates I could see the mass of graves, percentage of deaths was increasing by the day and how little room there was left. As I stepped into the entrance I seen graves dating from 1885, this automatically made me think of what life must have been like for this poor fellows, the dark side thinking they were dying of cancer or having a dramatic accident if they only knew the "dark side of Christmas" would turn out to be this while they were having a good side not too long ago. ...read more.

Middle

I was taught from a relatively young age not to walk over graves, only now when really thinking about it did I wonder why I was doing so. There was nobody around to judge me and my grandfather was not going to say a lot about it but I soon came to a conclusion that it was just done therefore I would do the same. I stepped forward standing directly in the middle of the aisle starring at the solemn grave on my ancestor. It read: `Beloved husband Father and grandfather Called to rest on 16th September 1984 Aged 61 years Peace perfect peace` As I read through this small note of his life I thought to myself how much I would have loved to meet him, the stories I have heard but unfortunately born 2 years to late. As I wandered back and forth I thought about how graves represent life. A new grave is well presented, polished and colourful. An old grave is dull, dark and left for dead and sometimes even broken. ...read more.

Conclusion

Seeing graves like this made me think of how it must have been for the parents when he was taken into the arms of God. You cannot possibly think this unless it happens to you. I looked toward this gigantic grave, which contained five bodies inside. Two young and three middles ages people. There are no guarantees to life and you only get what you put into it is it to late to change your past o or is it just fate that this happens? It's just so hard I could barely reach my granddads grave I could face up to the fact they were dead right now. I gained in distance toward but I just could face the fact of looking down onto their grave thinking they are not with us any more. Is this a dream to me or actually reality from now on every Christmas will be "a dark side of Christmas" but eventually I will have the courage to walk straight into the graveyard and see my two beloved granddads because before long I will have my whole life squeezed onto once small piece of stone. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Christmas section.

Related GCSE Christmas essays

In Italy, most homes and churches have a presepio (Nativity scene). On Christmas Eve, the family prays while the mother places a figure of the Bambino (Christ child) in the manger. Many Italians serve eels for dinner on Christmas Eve.

This allowed many to sponsor the poor at Christmas, some did not even have the generosity to sponsor the poor. We know that Dickens had been affected by poverty as in his own life he also had a problem with his money as his dad was not there to provide any for the household.

I think the intention of the poet using a short sentence was to finish the list off. Also, it was probably used to let the reader know that there were more problems but they could not be mentioned all. The use of negative language and the 'list' effect makes the main tone of the poem sound very dark and depressing.

Suddenly I thought Christmas was no longer a time of joy, but of sadness, loneliness and destroyed hopes. Christmas is never going to be 'perfect', in fact it is far from perfect, and that's frightening. So my answer to the question, "Can there ever be a 'perfect' Christmas?"

They had 'dancing', 'more dancing', ' a cake' and ' a cold roast'. There were ' mincepies'and 'plenty of beer'. This was a time when the lower or working classes became upper class people and could the true delights of life.

have caused lots of stress, worry, and debt for ourselves and we go around spending all this money when we don't really need to. In order to make the images more vivid all of the poems have used colour. In "Ballad of the Bread Man" Causley writes "God in his